ABSTRACT
The primary source of environmental destruction lies in the pursuit of material goods and services to satisfy human beings' needs and desires. The way in which congestion limits our ability, as individuals, to benefit as much as people might have imagined from the use of goods which people own or activities discussed extensively in the context of environmental problems. The overused "commons" is the aspect of environmental problems most focused on by economists. Many Americans who have struggled with the seemingly limitless array of serious environmental problems people face have come to suspect that there may be something about our socioeconomic system which generates or aggravates environmental destruction. The consequences of the individual definition and pursuit of well-being in a capitalist society are found in the deterioration of the social as well as the natural environment. From that must develop the social mechanisms for taking account of that interdependence in a democratic manner.
